April Author of the Month Eden Winters Author introduction with Guest post & #giveaway @EdenWinters1 @TTCBooksandmore

Howdy y'all, allow me to introduce you to our Author of the Month for April, Eden Winters. We're going to start off with a guest post on the Importance of book covers (Who reading this hasn't bought a book simply because of the cover? Guilty!) and share a couple of Eden's books, with great covers.

Giveaway details are at the end of the post, and remember to check back every week for new spotlights and reviews where you can comment on each new post for additional entries in the giveaway.

The importance of book covers. 

I’ve been publishing for over twelve years now, and one thing I’ve learned is that it doesn’t matter how great your story is if you can’t draw readers’ attention with a beautiful, evocative cover. I’ve had covers over the years that made me squee with delight, and some that didn’t. One of the great things about having total creative control over my work to choose my own covers, write my own blurbs, etc., but that brings its own problems. 

How can you describe your characters or story to an artist, hoping they can match what’s in your head, especially, if you’re like me and can’t provide a clear vision or have no idea what might be eye-catching about my book? My answer? I buy premade covers that speak to me, and use them as inspiration for my story. 

My latest release from February 19th of this year is a paranormal romance featuring a biker, and the story actually began in my head when I saw a premade cover by Luther Designs. A tattooed biker, somewhat older than most romance characters. I even based the curse mark in the novel on the hand tattoo in the image. It fits the story so well because it inspired the story. I also drew inspiration from the story of The Flying Dutchman. The result? A novel called Cursed: Ride or Die.

Likewise, the story is based on the image for my next offering, which releases on April 23, a fantasy/urban fantasy, Something Wicked. The name popped into my head the moment I saw the artist’s work, by Charlotte Ross Designs, and I believe in this case I had to beat other authors to claim the cover on a first come, first served basis. 

While my recent offerings are paranormal and fantasy, I’m best known for my pharmaceutical crime series, Diversion.  Artist LC Chase did an incredible job with the series covers. I like to read a variety of genres, so that’s what I write, hoping that doesn’t disappoint potential readers who are die-hard contemporary, paranormal, or fantasy fans. 

Although I’m not usually a prolific writer, this year I’ve had the opportunity to finish works started years ago, so in additional to Cursed: Ride or Die and Something Wicked, later this year I anticipate releasing romantic comedy The Prince’s Frog, a gay romance take on The Frog Prince, another fantasy called Mage Bond, and a standalone book based in the Diversion world: Petty Crimes. 

And they all have fantastic covers.

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Cursed: Ride or Die is currently available on Amazon US & Amazon UK Free with KU

If they stop running, they die.

Slade Slater’s had a great life until he pissed off a sorcerer, who dooms Slade to a life of endless wandering. Linger anywhere for more than a month and his life is forfeit. The only way to break the evil curse? Sacrifice true love. Which won't be an option anytime soon. Slade's been alone for a long time. Cursed nomads, it turns out, are a solitary bunch. After all, who could fall in love with a man who can never settle down? But everything changes the night he stumbles upon an injured shifter.

Noah's never known the companionship of a pack and desperately longs for the security of his own kind. Danger stalks him, forcing him to spend his life hiding from humans until a cursed human lights up his bleak world. Saved from near death by the sexy stranger with tats for days and a big, black Harley, Noah finds that, while he might be the only werewolf in the eastern US, he doesn't have to be alone.

Though they’re stalked by ruthless enemies, Slade and Noah might be each other’s salvation.

If they can outrun the hunters.

Something Wicked is available from Amazon US Amazon UK and free with KU.

A mysterious legacy. A magical journey. The worst guide in history!

Piers Adams never knew his parents or birthplace. All he wants from his mundane life is a better apartment and fewer working hours serving drinks at a club in Asheville, North Carolina. Sure, weirdness happens around him occasionally. Coincidences, right? He can’t possibly wish things into existence. After all, he’s only human.

Maybe.

It’s hard living down to a nickname like Wicked, but Prince Wycke Bertillian of the magical realm tries. He enjoys his lack of responsibilities until he’s coerced into a clandestine mission: find an evil sorceress’s hidden son in the human realm.

A chance encounter awakens magical potential beyond what either realm has seen before. Barely managing his own life doesn’t qualify Wycke to guide a novice sorcerer with infinite magic and zero self-preservation skills. Unfortunately, it’s Wycke or nothing standing between Piers and those who’d take Piers’ magic for themselves—magic powerful enough to rule two realms.

Piers and Wycke had better get their act together. Their lives and the fate of the human and magical worlds rests in their highly incompetent hands.

You will know Eden Winters by her distinctive white plumage and exuberant cry of “Hey, y’all!” in a Southern US drawl so thick it renders even the simplest of words unrecognizable. Watch out, she hugs!

Driven by insatiable curiosity, she possibly holds the world’s record for curriculum changes to the point that she’s never quite earned a degree but is a force to be reckoned with at Trivial Pursuit.

She’s trudged down hallways with police detectives, learned to disarm knife-wielding bad guys, and witnessed the correct way to blow doors off buildings. Her e-mail contains various snippets of forensic wisdom, such as “What would a dead body left in a Mexican drug tunnel look like after six months?” In the process of her adventures, she has written over twenty-five gay romance novels, lost count of shorter works, has won Rainbow Awards, was a Lambda Awards Finalist, and lives in terror of authorities showing up at her door to question her Internet searches.

When not putting characters in dangerous situations she’s hanging out at the farm with her many pets, being a mother, grandmother, vegetarian, or supporting children’s charities as a Star Wars cosplayer.

Her natural habitats are coffee shops, her office, and on the back of a motorcycle.

Website | Twitter | Facebook Author | Facebook reader group

Book2Read Page with universal links

Eden Winters is offering a giveaway, any e-book from her backlist, which includes Audible codes for audiobooks. To be entered, simply leave a comment and tell us what is your favorite Eden Winters read, or what book you're looking forward to reading most.

*You MUST leave your contact information >email address< to be contacted if you're name is chosen* All comments from all Author of the Month posts throughout April will be entered into the giveaway.

Follow the blog facebook page HERE and check the giveaway tab for all the current promo posts with giveaways, thanks for stopping by y'all!